Episode 50 – Exalt of the Weird: Celebrating Celtic Frost’s Into the Pandemonium

Storming the gates with a new wave cover tune, borrowing from Baudelaire and sampling from NASA Apollo transmissions over primitive machine pulses, Swiss pioneers Celtic Frost exploited terrain no metal band had before with their third full-length album. Created under constant stress and duress in the early months of 1987, the self-produced album was a bold, controversial piece of art that continues to divide the Frost fan base decades later. Irrational yet focused, phantasmagoric yet genuine, and depicting a Heavenly sort of Hell, Into the Pandemonium knots together opposing forces and plunges us into the abode of all demons. Playful, mischievous, path-finding demons…

Note I:“Babylon Fell,” “Caress Into Oblivion” and “I Won’t Dance” are subtitled on some version of Into the Pandemonium thusly, parenthetically, and respectively: “Jade Serpent,” “Jade Serpent II” and “The Elders’ Orient.”

Note II:Jeff misspoke slightly. The correct title of the Hieronymous Bosch painting that the band used for the album cover is The Garden of Earthly Delights.

Note III: As noted at the end of this episode, Radical Research will be on hiatus for a couple months. We love RR and are not letting it die. We are just letting it take a little nap. Please check out our older episodes until we resume with episode 51 sometime late spring 2020. And please check the Blog section on RadicalResearch.org as we will be posting an interview with Manes leader Tor-Helge Skei as well as Hunter’s thorough, thought-provoking essay on Solefald’s Neonism album. Thanks for your support and, especially right now, your patience. We will return!

Radical Research is a conversation about the inner- and outer-reaches of rock and metal music. This podcast is conceived and conducted by Jeff Wagner and Hunter Ginn. Though we consume music in a variety of ways, we give particular privilege to the immersive, full-album listening experience. Likewise, we believe that tangible music formats help provide the richest, most rewarding immersions and that music, artwork, and song titles cooperate to produce a singular effect on the listener. Great music is worth more than we ever pay for it.